The Persimmon Tree - Formalist

     The Persimmon Tree doesn’t follow a basic short story structure. It has a beginning, but it ends as if it is in the middle of the story. There is no significant character development, trials, or resolution. The story begins with the narrator telling of her quarrels of illness during the winter, and how she moved into a new flat in a ‘quiet, blind street lined with English trees’. She then goes on to tell how she began to fit in with the community, and how she became observant of the daily life of the woman who lived across the street. The persimmon trees are introduced, and she (narrator) talks about her past encounter with the trees, and about how they look in different seasons, and the transition from winter to spring. It ends with what can be guessed as an encounter with the woman, who stares out at the persimmons, and bares her naked body to the narrator as she watches the woman observe the trees. The structure of this story makes it very hard to tell what the plot is.

     The story takes place over a few months, which is indicated by the description of the persimmon trees, and how they have changed from winter to spring. The narrator is a woman, who remains unnamed throughout the text. She describes herself as ‘a lonely woman’, who has a ‘dozen friends. But there wasn’t a friend that I loved and trusted above all the others’, and she had no lover ‘secret or declared’. There are only two major characters; the narrator and the woman across the street. There are mentions of other neighbours, but never in detail. It has been said that the final scene shows how the neighbouring woman represents virginity, and sexuality. The tree’s fruit is also said to represent purity and virginity.

     The setting, the changing of winter to spring, represents rebirth, and purity. The author uses very descriptive, simple language to tell the story, and uses the descriptions of people and nature to convey metaphor and symbol, such as the symbol that the woman and the trees hold.